


tradition

by somehowunbroken



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Holidays, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-07-21 00:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16148645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: Zach and Naz talk about December 25ths of the past and decide to make their own plans for this year.





	tradition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eafay70](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/gifts).



> eafay70 gave a prompt about how zach and naz deal with december as non-christian people. i really loved the prompt, and it quickly focused on what they do on the actual day of christmas, when everyone else is christmasing and they are decidedly not. i hope you enjoy it!
> 
> thanks to everyone who took a look at this!

"Merry Christmas!" the girl behind the Tim's counter says, and Naz doesn't even blink as he takes his cup from her, just nods and keeps his face set firmly on friendly-neutral as he turns and ducks out of the way. His coffee is perfect, not that he was expecting otherwise, and it's only a matter of a minute or two before the girl hands Zach his cup, a red and green monstrosity that's a true graphic design nightmare even to Naz' admittedly limited experience, and wishes him a Merry Christmas, too.

Zach winces, but he covers it up pretty quickly. The girl probably didn't even notice, what with the insane amount of people in the store for the early morning rush, but Naz for sure caught it.

"The merriest Christmas I ever had," Naz says when Zach pauses beside him, "I was nine, and our neighbours got new sleds for Christmas, but they had to leave in the early afternoon to go visit family, and their dad said me and my sisters could use them. The five of us, a bunch of sleds, nicely packed snow, and everyone in the neighbourhood too busy to join in."

Zach laughs and gestures towards the door, so Naz starts walking with him. "My sisters and I," Zach says almost absently.

Naz hides his smile in his coffee. "Wait, I thought you had brothers?"

"You're a shit-stirrer," Zach says, but his voice is very definitely fond. Naz has gotten a lot better at picking up on that since they started their whole... since they started, he amends in his head. Anyway, he's good at it now, and Zach is definitely smiling in a "you're cute" kind of way, not a "what the hell, Nazem" kind of way. There's a lot more frowny lines for that one.

"Gotta be me," Naz says. "There were other choices, but they sucked at hockey." It makes Zach laugh again, and Naz smiles. He's got this boyfriend shit on lock. "What was your merriest Christmas?"

Zach shrugs a little. "It usually depends on what movies are out, honestly," he says. "Family tradition of movies and Thai food, and then Mom makes kugel for dessert, because she thinks it's hilarious to make a specifically Jewish dish on Christmas."

Naz snorts. "I'm sorry, are you telling me you _don't_ think that's hilarious?"

"It totally is," Zach says, smiling as they walk down the sidewalk. It's a little funny, Naz thinks wryly as he ducks to the side to avoid a kid barrelling down the snowy sidewalk. Toronto tries really hard, it does, but Christmas is... everywhere. There's a menorah in the big display downtown, sure, but pretty much every decoration you find street-to-street is red and green or sparkly lights or freaking pine tree-inspired.

Naz nudges Zach's arm with his elbow, then nods up at a banner attached to a light pole, a cartoonish Christmas tree crisscrossed with colourful strands of something flapping in the breeze. "Should we get a Hanukkah bush?"

"No," Zach says, so adamant that Naz starts laughing. "That's— _Nazem_."

It's still not the "what the hell" voice, so Naz keeps needling; even though he loves Zach to death and back again, he's forever and always himself. "We could put menorahs on it," he suggests. "Hang dreidels. We could make it multicultural, even, print out little mosques and get them laminated at Staples—"

"That's awful," Zach says, but he's laughing, cheeks red from it and the cold whipping around them. It's going to be a kind of shitty weather day, Naz figures; this is definitely the kind of wind that brings a storm, but they have video review in a couple of hours and then a game, so at least most of the cold they'll face will be man-made, the kind they can handle. Still, it does nice things for Zach's cheeks, even if their current conversation is making Naz draw some really unfortunate comparisons between the way Zach's cheeks look and the weird red suit thing that Santa Claus wears in all the movies.

"What do you want to do for the 25th?" Naz asks. "I promise not to actually make you buy a Hanukkah bush."

Zach snorts a little. "Promise you won't buy one for me, or have anyone else do it," he challenges. "Then maybe I'll believe you."

Naz just smiles and hums, but Zach laughs, so it's worth it. "December 25th plans," Naz repeats. "Because I vote for a Mission Impossible marathon, and we can order Thai or whatever, and I don't know how to cook kugel—"

"You don't know how to cook at all," Zach cuts in. "Come home with me?"

Naz stops and turns to face Zach, who takes a few more steps before realising that Naz isn't with him. "Home?" Naz asks. "Like, to your family Thai and kugel party?"

"I mean," Zach says, glancing away. He takes a sip of coffee, and it's for sure a tactic to buy time. "I know it's a kinda soon to do a holiday family thing, but—"

"Christmas isn't a real holiday," Naz says, smile spreading slowly across his face. "And I am _totally_ in for the Thai and kugel party. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't dreaming, because I have had your mom's cooking before, and I'm gonna be honest with you, Hyms, I'm not even totally sure what kugel _is,_ but I'm here for it anyway."

Part of the reason they work so well, Naz knows, is because Zach can pretty much always follow along when Naz starts rambling, and he usually finds it cute for some reason instead of incredibly irritating. Zach's an absolute catch for about a million reasons, Naz knows, but the way he smiles wider and wider the more Naz talks is really up there in the reasons department.

"So you'll come," Zach says, reaching out for Naz's hand. They don't hold hands, not often, because of the whole public figures thing, but today's the kind of day where nobody will slow down to investigate the identities of the two guys in toques walking slowly down the street, so it's safe enough. "I want to tell them, just so we're clear about that."

"I'll come, and I'm fine with you telling them," Naz confirms. "But you need to tell me if there's gonna be a Hanukkah bush, man. I am definitely making a mosque ornament if there is."

Zach laughs, soft and short. "There won't be," he says. "And, for the record, kugel is sweet noodle pudding. It's got, like, raisins and cinnamon and stuff in it, and it's really good."

"I'm having two servings," Naz declares, squeezing Zach's hand a little. "I'm so here for pudding."

"I'm glad," Zach says, smiling. "It'll be the merriest December 25th two completely non-Christian people have ever had, I'm pretty sure."

"It will," Naz agrees. He lets his smile go a little sweet, because Zach can always pick up on the feelings Naz isn't sure how to name, and then he adds, "Even if there's no Hanukkah bush."

Zach's eyes crinkle when he laughs, loud and bright this time, and Naz smiles and keeps holding his hand as they continue walking down the street.

-0-

(There is a Hanukkah bush, Naz discovers when he arrives at the Hyman household on Christmas morning. There are absolutely little dreidels and menorahs hanging on it, just like Naz had joked. When he turns to glare at Zach for not warning him, Zach's already there, smiling a little crookedly and holding out a printed-out and laminated clipart mosque, coloured in with markers.

Naz takes it and hangs it on the bush. It spins and bobs for a few seconds before settling completely sideways, the thin part of the paper sticking out of the tree.

It's perfect, Naz decides, stepping back. Merriest December 25th ever.)

**Author's Note:**

> the year after this, naz buys a flowering hibiscus tree in a pot. it lives in a nice spot in his apartment, and there is one dreidel and that same laminated mosque hanging from it. auston tries to put tinsel on it, and naz makes him pick up every single strand. tinsel is bad for jazzy, auston, and also naz thinks it's ugly. zach gets the whole thing on video, and honestly, who needs a holiday just for winter gifts when you have a fifteen-minute-long video of auston matthews crawling around covered in tinsel?


End file.
